The Church of the Nativity was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

in the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 44 Second Avenue between Second and

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

Streets in the East Village neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was established in 1842 and permanently closed in 2015.Lafort, Remigius
The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg
'. New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914. p. 352.

History

Nativity parish was founded by Rev.

Andrew Byrne Andrew J. Byrne (1802 – June 10, 1862) was an Irish-born American Catholic priest, who became the first bishop of the Diocese of Little Rock in Arkansas from 1844 until his death in 1862. Biography Early life Andrew Byrne was born in 1802 ...

. Byrne purchased the former Second Avenue Presbyterian Church, which was dedicated by Bishop John Hughes on June 5, 1842. Two years later, Byrne was named Bishop of Little Rock. George McCloskey was pastor for over twenty-years, until in 1869 he resigned to become vicar general for his brother, Bishop William McCloskey of Louisville. When St. John the Baptist Church on West 30th Street burned down in 1847, pastorship of St. John's parish was assumed by the Church of the Nativity until St. John's was rebuilt in 1851.Lafort, Remigius
The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg
'. New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914. p. 338. On January 20, 1912, a fire broke out at Nativity, destroying the "historic organ" and interior. In November 2014, the archdiocese announced that the Church of the Nativity was one of 31 of its parishes which would be merged with other parishes. The church celebrated its final Mass on July 31, 2015. The church was closed on August 1, 2015, and merged with nearby Most Holy Redeemer Parish. The church was deconsecrated in June 2017. The church building was sold in 2020, for $40 million to real-estate developer. It had been suggested by some parishioners, that the church should be turned into a shrine for

Dorothy Day Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic without abandoning her social and anarchist activism. She was perhaps the best-known ...

, co-founder of the

Catholic Worker Movement The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in the United States in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus ...

and candidate for sainthood. The Archdiocese said they would look into the idea, but the 2017 deconsecration and subsequent sale in 2020, seemed to make it clear that the idea would not move forward.

Buildings

The original painted-timber

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

sanctuary was built in 1832 at 48 Second Avenue as the Second Avenue Presbyterian Church, p.156 and was designed by the prominent New York firm of Town & Davis, which then included

Alexander Jackson Davis Alexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis (July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892), was an American architect, known particularly for his association with the Gothic Revival style. Education Davis was born in New York City and studied at t ...

, J. H. Dakin, and

James Gallier James Gallier (24 July 1798– 3 October 1866) was a prominent nineteenth-century Ireland, Irish-born American architect, most famed for his buildings in New Orleans. Gallier Hall, which he designed and once served as New Orleans City Hall, is ...

. It consisted of a Greek Doric portico and two-stage steeple. In 1842, it was sold to the newly formed Nativity of Our Lord parish and became the Church of the Nativity. It was demolished in 1970, after a fire. The present

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

church was built at 44 Second Avenue from 1968 to 1970, p.170 for $240,000 to the designs of Genovese & Maddalene. It has been described as "starkly institutional" and "a modern architectural cartoon exhibiting a gross idea with no detail." The parish included within its territory the headquarters of the Catholic Worker Movement and was the site of the

Funeral Mass A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

of its co-founder, Dorothy Day, in December 1980.

References

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nativity Church (New York City) Jesuit churches in the United States Roman Catholic churches completed in 1970 Religious organizations established in 1842 Alexander Jackson Davis buildings Demolished churches in New York City Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Modernist architecture in New York City Roman Catholic churches in Manhattan East Village, Manhattan 1842 establishments in New York (state) Defunct organizations based in New York (state) Religious organizations disestablished in 2015 Closed churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States